stool bank

Fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is effective against recurrent Clostridioides difficile infection (rCDI), but its safety is jeopardized by the potential transmission of pathogens, so international guidelines recommend either a quarantine or a direct stool testing. Whereas reports of the quarantine-based approach are emerging, data on the direct testing-based approach are not available. Our aim is to report outcomes of a donor screening framework for FMT including direct stool testing. In this prospective cohort study, all donor candidates recruited at our FMT centre underwent a four-step screening process to be enrolled as actual donors...

BACKGROUND: Multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria are a growing global threat, especially in healthcare facilities. Faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is an effective prevention strategy for recurrences of Clostridioides difficile infections and can also be useful for other microbiota-related diseases. METHODS: We study the effect of FMT in patients with multiple recurrent C. difficile infections on colonisation with MDR bacteria and antibiotic resistance genes (ARG) on the short (3 weeks) and long term (1-3 years), combining culture methods and faecal metagenomics...

BACKGROUND: Taeniasis, is a worldwide foodborne zoonotic disease caused by two principal species; Taenia saginata and Taenia solium. The tapeworm infects the intestine causing taeniasis in humans. Taeniasis is a very rare parasitic infection in Palestine with very few annual cases of unknown species. The infection rate and the disease status are not clear due to the lack of reports about the actual number of patients. CASE PRESENTATION: Two Palestinian patients; one male of 22 years old from Hebron and the other is female of 33 years old from Ramallah were referred to Palestinian Health Services in the West Bank, Palestine, complained of weight loss, abdominal pain and presence of motile segments of creamy color in the their stool...

Fresh-frozen stool banks intended for humans with gastrointestinal and metabolic disorders have been recently established and there are ongoing efforts to establish the first veterinary fresh-frozen stool bank. Fresh frozen stored feces provide an advantage of increased availability and accessibility to high-quality optimal donor fecal material. The stability of frozen canine feces regarding fecal microbiome composition and diversity has not been reported in dogs, providing the basis for this study. We hypothesized that fecal microbial composition and diversity of healthy dogs would remain stable when stored at -20°C and -80°C for up to 12 months compared to baseline samples evaluated before freezing...

Norovirus is recognised as a major cause of epidemic and sporadic acute gastroenteritis (AGE) in all age groups. Information on the genetic diversity of the noroviruses circulating in the 1980s and 1990s, before the development and adoption of dedicated molecular assays, is limited compared with the last decades. Between 1986 and 2020, uninterrupted viral surveillance was conducted in symptomatic children hospitalized with AGE in Palermo, Italy, providing a unique time capsule for exploring the epidemiological and evolutionary dynamics of enteric viruses...

BACKGROUND: Faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is the standard treatment for patients with multiple recurrent Clostridioides difficile infection (rCDI). Recently, new commercially developed human microbiota-derived medicinal products have been evaluated and Food and Drug Administration-approved with considerable differences in terms of composition, administration, and targeted populations. OBJECTIVES: To review available data on the different microbiota-derived treatments at the stage of advanced clinical evaluation and research in rCDI in comparison with FMT...

Live biotherapeutic products (LBPs) represent a new class of therapeutics indicated to prevent the recurrence of Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) in adults. However, microbiota-based therapies have been used in CDI management before the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) designated this new drug class. The regulation of these microbiome-based therapies has varied, and several safety concerns have arisen over time. Requirements established by the FDA regarding the development of LBPs minimizes many of these prior concerns, and phase III trials have proven the safety and efficacy of 2 stool donor-derived LBPs: fecal microbiota, live-jslm (Rebyota™; formerly RBX2660) and fecal microbiota spores, live-brpk (Vowst™; formerly SER-109)...

Recently, the gut microbiota-based live biotherapeutics (LBPs) development, the interaction between gut microbial species and the host, and the mining of new antimicrobial peptides, enzymes and metabolic pathway have received increasing attention. Culturing gut microbial species is therefore of great importance. This review systemically compared the construction advances of gut microbial culture banks and also analyzed the differences of methods used by research groups to give insight into the construction and enrichment of gut microbial resources...

This molecular-epidemiological study was conducted in several locations in Cairo and Giza Governorates in domestic cats ( Felis catus ) to detect the most common intestinal helminths in feces and molecularly characterize this nematode. So, three hundred domestic cats were admitted to different clinics around Cairo and Giza Governorates with severe diarrhea, even watery, between January 2023 and April 2023. The ages of the cats ranged from 1 to 2.5 years old. Blood, sera, and urine samples were collected for further investigation of the health condition of the animals ...

BACKGROUND: The breast milk bank is a professional organization that collects donor human milk (DHM) for special medical needs by recruiting qualified breast milk donors. Such organizations are also responsible for the disinfection, processing, testing, storage, distribution, and use of breast milk. As DHM is a biological product, it may get contaminated. Microbiological testing is the final step to determine microbial contamination of DHM. However, a universal method for the microbiological analysis of DHM in breast milk banks globally is lacking...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to systematically analyze and summarize the implications of COVID-19 on the digestive system by quantitatively evaluating the prevalence of gastrointestinal symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, constipation, diarrhea, anorexia. reported in COVID-19 cases. We simultaneously investigated other variables to determine the association of such symptoms in COVID-19 patients which can potentially influence the disease prognosis and outcome...

BACKGROUND/PURPOSE(S): Human breastmilk (BM) is important for microbiome maturation in infants across different body sites. Streptococcus and Staphylococcus are considered universally predominant genera in the BM microbiota. However, whether the differential abundance of Streptococcus and Staphylococcus in BM can differentially affect microbiome maturation in infants remains unclear. METHODS: We recruited exclusively breastfeeding mothers from among the donors of the human milk bank established at National Cheng-Kung University Hospital...

BACKGROUND: Intrauterine exposure to maternal overweight/obesity or diabetes transmits risks to offspring, perpetuating a disease cycle across generations. Prenatal interventions to reduce maternal weight or dysglycemia have limited impact, while postpartum interventions can alter the intrauterine environment only if child-bearing continues. Efficacious preconception interventions are needed, especially for underserved populations, and with the potential to be scaled up sustainably. Research is also needed to assess intervention effects at conception, throughout pregnancy, and among offspring...

BACKGROUND: Inferior quality of biological material compromises data, slows discovery, and wastes research funds. The gut microbiome plays a critical role in human health and disease, yet little attention has been given to optimizing collection and processing methods of human stool. METHODS: We collected the entire bowel movement from 2 healthy volunteers: one to examine stool sample heterogeneity and one to test stool sample handling parameters. Sequencing and bioinformatic analyses were used to examine the microbiome composition...

Alterations in the microbiome correlate with improved metabolism in patients following bariatric surgery. While fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) from obese patients into germ-free (GF) mice has suggested a significant role of the gut microbiome in metabolic improvements following bariatric surgery, causality remains to be confirmed. Here, we perform paired FMT from the same obese patients (BMI > 40; four patients), pre- and 1 or 6 months post-Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) surgery, into Western diet-fed GF mice...

BACKGROUND: Patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are at an increased risk of developing Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI). Treatment of CDI in patients with IBD is challenging due to higher failure rates and concomitant IBD activity. OBJECTIVES: We performed a multicentre cohort study in patients with IBD who received fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) for recurrent CDI (rCDI), to further investigate factors that influence the clinical outcome and course of both rCDI and IBD...

The gut microbiome acts as a tumor-extrinsic regulator of responses to immune-checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) targeting PD-1 and CTLA-4 receptors. Primary resistance to anti-PD-1 ICI can be reversed via responder-derived fecal microbiota transplant (FMT) in patients with refractory melanoma. Efforts to create stool banks for FMT have proved difficult. Therefore, we aimed to establish a novel donor-screening program to generate responder-derived FMT for use in PD-1 refractory melanoma. Candidate PD-1 responder donors and PD-1 refractory recipients were recruited via clinic-based encounters at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center hospitals...

BACKGROUND: Rotavirus infection remains an important cause of morbidity and mortality in children. The introduction of vaccination programs in more than 100 countries has contributed to a decrease in hospitalizations and mortality. This study investigates the epidemiological impact of the rotavirus vaccine ROTAVAC® in the Palestinian Territories, the first country to switch from ROTARIX® to this new vaccine. METHODS: Clinical surveillance data was collected fromchildren younger than 5attendingoutpatient clinics throughout Gaza withdiarrhea between 2015 and 2020...

Fecal microbiota transplant (FMT) is a therapeutic method that aims to restore normal gut microbial composition in recipients. Currently, FMT is approved in the USA to treat recurrent and refractory Clostridioides difficile infection and has been shown to have great efficacy. As such, significant research has been directed toward understanding the potential role of FMT in other conditions associated with gut microbiota dysbiosis such as obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus, metabolic syndrome, neuropsychiatric disorders, inflammatory bowel disease, irritable bowel syndrome, decompensated cirrhosis, cancers and graft-versus-host disease...

BACKGROUND: There is growing interest in faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) as a treatment for recurrent Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI), but evidence on the diverse requirements for safe, effective and accessible services is fragmented and limited. AIMS: To identify key components of FMT provision relating to the patient care pathway, stool donor pathway and wider healthcare system, and to explore variation in practice METHODS: We conducted a narrative review of the literature and consultations with key clinical experts in the field...